Thursday, May 31, 2007

[interconnectedness] ignore it at your peril

Lady MacLeod was actually talking about the horror of living in a war zone with no chance of escape:

There’s one thing about violent death you don’t see on the cinema screen, you can’t get from a book, and that’s the smell. I have been to a couple of war zones, but I knew I would be leaving.

The desperation that must come when you know you can’t leave; you can’t get your children to a better, safe life. The death of hope is by far worse than the physical death of the body.

.. but the main thesis of her piece was that:

I think the universe pushes together the people and circumstances that have business to be done. Not destiny, I don’t think our lives are preordained. I think we have choices.

which she then proceeds to try to negate to an extent. However, Agatha Christie agreed with her thesis and this is seen in this excerpt from a Harley Quin story:

"You say your life is your own," went on Mr Satterthwaite to her, "But can you dare to ignore the chance that you are taking part in a gigantic drama under the orders of a divine Producer?

Your cue may not come till the end of the play; it may be totally unimportant, a mere walk-on part, but upon it may hang the issues of the play if you fail to give the cue to another player.

The whole edifice may crumple. You, as you, may not matter to anyone in the world but you as a person in a particular place and context may matter unimaginably."

She sat down, still staring at him.

Douglas Adams hit the nail on the head with his facetiously stated but quite seriously intended "fundamental interconnectedness of all things" [Dirk Gently].

Then lastly, in a slight shift from the above but still germane to the issue - the whole life system of Australian aboriginal tribes [kourri] was based on the notion of the "oneness" of your environment and everything and everyone in it and you in the context of all that.

What we have here is the enormity of the human ego versus the enormity of the universe. Zaphod Beeblebrox can go into a cabinet which shows him the universe and his place in it but emerge unscathed, ego intact but as everyone who's read that book knows, he did it with help.

3 comments:

  1. thank you for citing me james. oh yes if only we would all realize that we are an integral part of every other living thing on the planet. If the oceans die from pollution we die, if we don't help eradicate antibiotic resistant TB from India it will get on a plane for the west as it did yesterday - and that's just the one who was stopped. If we don't make it our concern to address poverty and the simple diseases that can be cured or wiped out with a vaccine - they will come to our door.

    yes, could you move my soapbox a bit to the left?

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  2. Interesting stuff. It's amazing how much Douglas Adams can be relied upon in matters philosophical. Great shame he died so youg.

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  3. You've inspired me to post a picture, James1

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